Global inhibition and midcourse corrections in speeded aiming.
When some perceptual-motor relationships are reversed, participants might adopt a global inhibition strategy that replaces all normal movements with reversed movements. In two experiments, participants practiced moving a cursor from a start position to target locations. In a perceptual-motor reversal condition, in which horizontal but not vertical movements were reversed, participants were trained to move only to certain locations. Testing involved moving to all locations under the same reversal condition. Training on a subset of locations yielded partial transfer to untrained locations. These results support a global inhibition hypothesis modified to include both midcourse corrective movements and training specificity.
Wohldmann
Erica L
EL
Department of Psychology, California State University, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge, CA 91330-8255, USA. erica.wohldmann@csun.edu
Healy
Alice F
AF
Bourne
Lyle E
LE
D001288:Attention; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011601:Psychophysics; D011930:Reaction Time; D012193:Reversal Learning; D014163:Transfer, Psychology